Day: September 29, 2011

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — A Northern California teacher says he doesn’t want to hear a common courtesy in his classroom.

He’s even lowering students’ grades if they say “bless you” after someone sneezes.

Steve Cuckovich says the practice is disrespectful and disruptive. He’s banned saying “bless you” in his high school health class in Vacaville.

He even knocked 25 points from one student’s grade for saying the phrase in class.

Cuckovich says the policy has nothing to do with religion, but says the phrase is just a outdated practice and disrupts class time.

“When you sneezed in the old days, they thought you were dispelling evil spirits out of your body,” Cuckovich said. “So they were saying, ‘god bless you’ for getting rid of evil spirits. But today, I said what you’re doing doesn’t really make any sense anymore.”

The article went on to say that after parents complained about the deduction of points for saying “bless you” that Cuckovich stopped it. But he’s going to look into other ways of punishing the students for such so-called “eruptions of class time.”

I should clarify that this rare tidbit of truth from the Veep is only classified as a “gaffe” by yours truly because it’s something his party leaders are probably cringing over:

Vice President Joe Biden told Florida radio station WLRN on Thursday that voters should hold President Barack Obama, not former President George W. Bush, accountable for the poor state of America’s economy.

[…]

“Right now, understandably — totally legitimate — this is a referendum on Obama and Biden and the nature of the state of the economy,” Biden said.

Polls indicating that more Americans blame Bush for the economy than Obama are not relevant, Biden said.

“Even though fifty-some percent of the American people think that the economy tanked because of the last administration, that’s not relevant,” Biden stressed. “What’s relevant is we’re in charge. And right now we are the ones in charge and it’s gotten better, but it hasn’t gotten good enough.”

“I don’t blame them for being mad. We’re in charge,” Biden explained.

“Gotten better”? Not really. Not for anyone, including this administration, which is – as Biden tried to do about – attempting to whitewash its record when it comes to job creation/job “saving” in this rotten economy. Bush is still being blamed more, but a recent Gallup poll shows now that a “slight majority” of American people also now blame Obama for the state of economic affairs in this country. As he should be.

Anyway, kudos to the Vice President for the accidental trip down Reality Lane. He’s now filled his quota for the year on truth-telling – at one.

This might be the final crack before the dam surrounding Operation Fast and Furious collapses altogether. We already knew that a BATF operation, with the cooperation of other federal agencies including the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office in Arizona, knowingly allowed regulated heavy firearms to be sold by US gun dealers to “straw buyers” who were acting on behalf of the Mexican drug cartels. We also know that those guns were knowingly allowed to “walk” over the border to the waiting hands of the cartels , where we promptly lost track of them. And finally, we know that up to two US federal officers and over 200 Mexican soldiers, federal agents, and civilians have died because of “walked” guns.

That’s bad enough.

But today’s revelation in the New York Post is even worse: the BATF may have bought some of the guns themselves and resold them to the cartels:

Let that sink in: After months of pretending that “Fast and Furious” was a botched surveillance operation of illegal gun-running spearheaded by the ATF and the US attorney’s office in Phoenix, it turns out that the government itself was selling guns to the bad guys.

Agent John Dodson was ordered to buy four Draco pistols for cash and even got a letter from his supervisor, David Voth, authorizing a federally licensed gun dealer to sell him the guns without bothering about the necessary paperwork.

“Please accept this letter in lieu of completing an ATF Form 4473 for the purchase of four (4) CAI, Model Draco, 7.62×39 mm pistols, by Special Agent John Dodson,” read the June 1, 2010, letter. “These aforementioned pistols will be used by Special Agent Dodson in furtherance of performance of his official duties.”

On orders, Dodson then sold the guns to known criminals, who first stashed them away and then — deliberately unhindered by the ATF or any other agency — whisked them off to Mexico.

People were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, including at least two American agents and hundreds of Mexicans. And the taxpayers picked up the bill.

So where’s the outrage?

(Emphasis added)

Darned good question. While I think Michael Walsh’s speculations on the motives behind Gunwalker (1) are premature in the absence of more facts, I agree one-hundred percent with his conclusion: it’s time for a special prosecutor.

With the DOJ stonewalling House and Senate investigators, it’s the only way we’re going to get to the bottom of this fiasco.

Footnote:
(1) That it was either (or both) an effort to create a crisis that would lead to a call for strict gun-control in the US, or a CIA operation to arm other cartels against the Zetas, out of fear the Zetas might overthrow the Mexican government.